TUI partners with Chinese travel giant
TUI has signed a strategic partnership with Chinese travel giant Ctrip to sell its tours, excursions and activities.
Under the deal, Ctrip’s 200 million monthly users will have direct access to the tours and activities offered by TUI’s subsidiary Musement, the Milan-based technology start-up recently acquired by TUI.
TUI aims to turn it into the ‘world’s leading digital platform for activities and excursions’.
"China, our investments in IT and further digitisation and the growth field of tours and activities are important pillars of TUI’s growth strategy for further internationalisation and the development of new markets," said TUI CEO Fritz Joussen.
"The cooperation with Ctrip shows how closely TUI’s new business areas are linked and synergies within the Group are created. Market access to 200 million Ctrip users in China offers considerable potential for growth in Asia and the activities of our Spanish subsidiary TUI Destination Experiences."
As part of the partnership, the pair will also develop exclusive excursions and one-day tours in Chinese for many destinations.
Musement’s overall portfolio, which is also available to customers from China, currently comprises 150,000 products.
"The strategic partnership with Ctrip shows the immense opportunities the online business offers us in the area of tours and activities," added Joussen.
"We have an unbeatable portfolio of tours and activities – and we have a powerful digital platform that enables us to target customers with individual offers. We are convinced that this strong combination will enable us to consistently expand our online market share in the coming years."
Growing business in China and Southeast Asia is part of the group’s ‘TUI 2022’ strategy.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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